Despite your title being oxymoronic (is that the opposite of redundant?), here is my two cents. I do not have golden ears, but I can tell you that it really is not going to matter IN THE BEGINNING, what you get. Get whatever the best deal seems to be on cables that are as close to fully broken in as you can get. Hook everything up and play the heck out of it, listen and enjoy like crazy! Maybe a couple months. THEN, AND ONLY THEN will you have established a "base" (sonic signature, whatever) for your system, and then you can start introducing ONE SINGLE CHANGE at a time, based on how you might like to hear the system change, if any. You can audition or buy used at that point to your heart's content, because you are now depending on the science of what you bought versus the magic of all of the various forms of--to use the nicest word I can think of-- advertising that jumps in the way of what you are actually hearing. And do not forget to tune the room.
Inteligent high end cableing
Good grief.....I thought mating my electronics, speakers and budget was tough, but getting any consistancy with cableing advice seems impossible. I have recently acquired Proceed HPA3 amp (250/Ch), Proceed AVP pre-amp, Proceed PMDT DVD transport and will be linking them to either Watt Puppies 5.1 or to Revel Salons (there's a conversation right there). However, my real issue is what speaker cableing will match this setup. I can rationalize spending $40,000 on my system, but cannot get past $895 per foot for Audioquest top of the line. There's got to be a better 'mousetrap'. Any intelligent advice will be appreciated.